Rotary valve



Feb. 26, 1963 D. G. FAWKES 3,079,124

ROTARY VALVE Filed Dec. 23, 1959 Flll Z5 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Feb. 26, 1963D. G. FAwKEs 3,079,124

ROTARY VALVE Filed Dec. 23. 1959 1715.5 j; j f

5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Feb. 26, 1963 D. G. FAwKEs 3,079,124

ROTARY VALVE I Filed Dec. 23. 1959 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 FII-i5 United StatesPatent Oilice 3,@79,l24 Patented Fels. 26, 1953 3,079,124 RTARY VALVEDonald G. Fawkes, Chicago, lll., assigner to Henry Pratt Company, acorporation of illinois Filed Dec. 23, i959, Ser. No. 861,545 6 Claims.(Cl. 251-317) This invention relates to a class of valves which may betermed rotary, `spherical or ball valves in which the rotor of the valvehas a pipe-like section for alignment with an inlet and outlet forsubstantially unrestricted flow through the valve.

The principal object of this invention is to provide a new and improvedvalve of the above character. r Another and very signicant object ofthis invention is to provide a rotary valve in which the housing, seats,rotor and its bearings are all constructed about a common center and arethus easily and economically manufactured. Additionally, the centerednature or the valve parts also provides a valve capable of exceedinglyVlong life with continued eiective operation.

Another object is to provide such a rotary valve with an eiectiveclosure including a resilient closure member which is carried along aspherical path generally tangent to and in slight interference with aconical surface when adjusted for tightness, a part of the conicalsurface dening the valve seat.

Another object is to provide a valve closure including an annularresilient rubber-lille member which may move on to a metallic valve seatprogressively along the length of the rubber member, insuring its properoperation over years of effective operation or" the valve.

A further object is to provide a rotary valve in which the housing isconstructed in assembled parts insuring proper cooperation of a rotorand valve seats while simplifying manufacture and accurate assembly ofthe valve.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will beapparent from the following description of a valve embodying theinvention and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE l is a sectional view through the center of a valve embodying theinvention, the valve being shown diagrammatically installed betweenpipe-line sections shown fragmentarily;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional View through a portion ofthe valve closure and valve seat in the position shown in FIGURE l;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary sectional view at right angles to FIGURE 1 andtaken substantially along line 3-3 therein;

FIGURE 4 is a diagrammatic line illustration of the operation of thevalve showing the resilient closure member and its relation to the valveseat in various positions;

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged diagrammatic view of the area ol Contact betweenthe closure and its seat as illustrated in FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 is an elevational View in half section illustrating a preferredvalve housing and employing the valve closure means shown in FIGURES 4and 5 FIGURE 7 is a broken elevational View of the rotor of the valveshown in FIGURE 6 removed from the housing and looking 'toward theclosure member on the rotor, and

FIGURE 8 is a fragmentary elevational view of the central section of thevalve housing shown in FIGURE 6, removed from the assembly and taken 90to the view of FIGURE 6, substantially along line S- in FIGURE 6.

.The type of valve to which the present invention is applicable has beencalled by various names such as spherical, ball or more generically asrotary valves.

Basically, the valve has a housing with appropriate ilanges forconnection to adjoining piping. 'the housing is, in general, the shapeof a ball so that it has a large interior open space. A rotor is mountedwithin the valve housing and has a pipe-like section which can be turnedinto alignment with the inlet and outlet to provide a straightthrough,unobstructed passage or iluid ilow through the valve. rl`he valve isparticularly advantageous in that the pipe-like section of the rotorguides the iiow through the valve in such a manner that there is verylittle, if any, disturbance to the smooth lines of tlow. The closure ofthe valve is generally accomplished by mounting a closure member on theside ot the rotor so positioned as to be carried across the inlet oroutlet when the rotor is turned within the housing. The valves withwhich the present invention is concerned should be distinguished alsofrom plug valves 'which have a spherical cavity in which a sphere ismounted for generally contiguous contact with the cavity. In the presenttype of valves, the rotor is supported at opposite trunnions and isotherwise free of contact with the housing.

A relatively small size of valve has been chosen for illustrating thepresent invention in FIGURES 1 to 3, and the drawings illustrate a valvefor use in a nominal 10" line. Referring to FIGURES 1 and 3, the housingof the valve is in two parts; the main part lil having a flange ll forconnection to a flange 12 of an adjoining pipe 13 by appropriate boltsift. The main part of the housing extends beyond the center of the valvefor connection to the second part 1.5 of the housing, the parts lll and15 being connected by machine screws 16 passing through appropriateilanges l and lll formed on their respective valve housing portions. Thesmaller valve housing portion 15 also has a ange i9 whereby connectionmay be made to the flange 2t) of a pipe 2l by bolts 22.

The main portion of the housing It) is provided at diametricallyopposite points with iianges 23 and 24, both of circular form forreceiving a bearing sleeve. At the upper end of the housing (FIGURE l) abearing sleeve 25 lits within the circular ilange 23 and has provisionfor a seal 26 and stalling box 27 to accommodate a shaft 28. This shaftis the operating shaft of the valve and is intended to be secured to therotor Sil as by pins 31 and 32. The rotor has a pipe-like elongatedsection 33 equipped with an upper boss bearing 34 extending upwardlyinto the upper sleeve 25 with appropriate bearing metal sleeve 35between the two parts. A lower boss member 36 extends downwardly fromlthe lower part of the rotor 33 and is received in a bearing sleeve 37mounted in the lower circular llange 3s!- of the housing. Here also anappropriate bearing metal sleeve 38 is interposed between the boss 36and the sleeve 37.

The structure of the valve housing and rotor thus described is such thatthe pipe-like section may be aligned with the inlet 39 (FIGURE 3) andthe outlet 40, both of which are of the same size as lthe connectedpiping. The pipe-like section has a diameter which is the same as theinlet and the outlet and only a small gap will extend between the endsof the rotor and the housing parts which form the inlet and outlet. Verylittle, if any, disturbance to flow lines occurs because of this smallgap.

The closure of the present valve is effected by rotating the rotor 90 tobring a closure mounted on the side of the rotor into contiguous Contactwith a valve seat formed in the housing. Referring to FIGURES 1 and 3,the smaller section l5 of the valve housing is provided with a ring 41of stainless steel or other metal forming a valve seat. The ring -fllmay be laid in the cast metal housing section l5 and then finished witha smooth outer surface. The surface in the present valve is part of aconical Surface, the center 42 of which (FIGURE 4) is on a center 3 linethrough the inlet and outlet of the valve housing. Trie closure of thevalve is a ring of resilient material intended to seat upon the valveseat di just described. The closure generally designated d3 has a basering tl shaped to i'lt the cylindrical surface of the pipe-like section33, and is welded thereto. In FEGURE l, it will oc noted that the ringift is'secured as by welding d5 to the side of the pipe-like section 33.

The exact form of the closure structure may be understood by the detailsshown in FIGURE 2. The ring dd has a radially outwardly extending ange46 with an outer exposed surface d? shaped to support a resilientrubber-like ring d3 along one side of its radially extending lip i9integral with an enlarged base Si?. The outer end surface 5l of the ringis rounded so that the surface is formed in the shape of the outer partof a torus. A metal retaining ring 52 has an inner surface 53 shaped toseat against the outer part of the sealing ring t8 and extends inwardlywith a lange S4 to receive machine screws 55 threaded in tapped bores 56in the ring dft. Sulhcient clearance is provided between the innersurface 57 of the ring and the outer surface 53 of the base ring d4 suchthat the clamping ring may be adiusted in position relative to the basering. An axially extending bange part S on the clamping ring extendsbeneath the base of the resilient sealing member. The parts are clampedtogether in such almann'erthat a staticseal is formed on the resilientring part against its mating metal parts. The base ring 44, being weldedto the side of the pipe-like section together with the static sealso-formed, prevents any leakage through the parts of the closure.

The circular parts of the closure d3 being mounted on the rotor at adistance from its centerline of rotation will describe the surface of asphere moving between the open and closed positions. it will be noted inFGURE 2 that the metal parts of the closure are so proportioned thatthey have no contact with the seat material 4l. During opening andclosing movement of the rotor, there is no metal-to-metal contactbetween the rotor and any part of the housing. The rotor may turn in itsbearings and only the rubber material of the seal 4S will come incontact ywith the seat. Generally, the resilient ring 5S has a roundednose whose outer surface Sil is tangent to the list seat surface formedon the housing. lt may be described by saying that the sphere detined bythe outer surface of the nose is tangent to the conical surface of .theseat. In FIGURE 2 a llattened portion Sla of the nose is in sealingcontact with the dat surface of the se; T he initial position of therubber ring on the rotor is such that the contact between the roundednose and the conical seat surface is a circular line of contact when thevalve is fully closed. An adjustment is made by tightening the machinescrews 55 to expand the rubber ring against the conical seat surface tobroaden the line contact mentioned into a surface which will straddlethe circular line of contact speciiied above. in so constructing thecooperating parts of the closure, a minimum amount of interferencebetween the rubber ring and conical seat surface will be obtained. Inythe valve shown, this sealing occurs on the downstream side of the valvebut will be effective against luid now in either direction,

The operation of the valve may best be understood by referring to FIGURE4. The center dit represents the intersection of a line through theinlet and outlet of the valve and a line normal thereto being the axisof rotation of the rotor. The center 42 is the apex of a cone on thecenter line through the inlet and outlet, and including the surface ofseat 4i. rEhe dotted line position of the resilient ring 4S shows thering in complete 360 of Contact with the seat. The condition of the noseof the ring will be as is illustrated in FIGURE 2. The diagrammaticillustration of FIGURE 4 indicates the manner in which the resilientring is brought into contact with the seat material.

When the rotor is tirst rotated from closed and started toward openposition, the resilient ring will move toward the position shown in dotand dash lines and progressively will move along the surface of animaginary sphere 6i toward the full line position illustrated. Duringall of this movement, a portion of the nose of the ring remains insliding contact with the conical shaped seat. In 4the full lineposition, a stippled portion 62 (FIGURE 5) of the resilient ring extendsacross and is in contact with the seat. As the rotor moves, the area ofcon-tact progressively moves lengthwise of the resilient ring. The ringhas two areas 62, one on either side, which are in contact with theseat. These areas move toward each other and `will merge just prior tomovement of the ring out of contact with the seat entireiy.

As a further explanation of how the closure moves on to the metal seat,the entire resilient member is out of contact with the seat when thevalve is open. The initial movement of the rotor will bring the edge ofthe resilient ring against the seat gradually, compressing the rubbermaterial to the extent that it will be compressed when the valve isclosed. The part of the ring which first contacted the seat moves acrossthe seat and beyond, leaving two separate areas of contact between thering and seat. These areas travel lengthwise of the ring until the ringis brought into continuous contact with the seat, as illustrated inFIGURE 4. The gradual movement of the resilient member on to the seathas provided a means for centering all parts of the valve and yetobtaining a tight closure while prolonging the life of the resilientsealing ring. Many opening and closing cycles with the valve body beingsubjected to pressure after each closing of the valve, have proved theeffectiveness of the present construction.

The operation of the valve closure, as described above, is the samewhether the valve housing is formed as shown in FIGURES l thru 3, orwhether it is constructed in the preferred manner shown in FIGURES 6, 7and 8. A simplified construction of the parts of the valve housingpermits a very accurate forming of the same so that accurate assembly ofthe valve assembly is made quite easy. Referring to FIGURES 6 thru 8,the housing for thevalve preferably includes a generally annular centralhousing part 65 to which is attachced a pair of annular housing parts 66which are identical and reversible. The central part of the housing is athin wafer-like valve housing member having accurately ground side faces67 against which accurately ground surfaces 5S on the side parts areintended to seat. The central part of the valve housing carries abearing sleeve 69 in an upper flanged boss 7i) receiving a stub shaft 7lconnected to a valve rotor 72. A packing 73 about the shaft sealsagainst leakage from the interior of the valve around the operatingshaft. A similar bearing sleeve 74 is provided in a lower boss 75 on thecentral housing part. A stub shaft 75 is mounted in the bearing sleeveand an O-ring 77 seals against fluid leakage therealong. The lower stubshaft may include mechanism 78 forming an adjustable thrust bearing forsupporting the weight of the rotor within the valve housing Theadvantage of the preferred housing construction is that the center wafersection of the housing may be assembled with the rotor in place prior toattachment of the rest of the valve housing and obviously the parts ofthe rotor are easily accessible for assembly during this operation. Therotor 72 is preferably a cast member in which the pipe section '79 is anintegral casting having bosses Si? and 81 diametrically opposite forreceiving the shafts 71 and 7o. The closure on the rotor is best seen inFIGURES 6 and 7 and includes a built-up section with ribs 82 and acircular area to which the rubber ring retaining plate 83 is attached asby bolts 8d. The sealing ring 85 is of the same shape and assembled inthe same manner as described and illustrated in detail in FIGURE 2.

When the assembly of the central housing section and the rotor iscompleted, the valve may be completed by the mere attachment of the sidesections 66. The central section has cross ribstlt with intervening openspaces between them for the passage of bolts S7 out of contact with thecentral section. The end sections 66 are secured to the central sectionby the bolts S7, in eifect, straddling the central section through thespaces between the ribs 86. The mating surfaces between the housingsections are accurately ground to provide accurate location of the sidehousing sections on the central section. A sealing ring in the nature ofan O-ring S3 is provided between each of the housing sections insuring aliquid-tight seal. The side sections are provided with a small flange S9fitting within the central opening in the central section and accuratelocating of the side sections concentrically with the central section.The mere attachment of the side sections to the central part of thehousing thus accurately locates the conical valve closure seats 90relative to the axis of the rotor and centrally on the center linethrough the inlet and outlet of the housing.

In the preferred form, each of the side sections of the valve housingmay be equipped with any desired mating flanges for installing the valvein existing piping. In the present illustration, the outer flanges 91are provided with bolt holes 92 in con fentional form for bolted flangepiping. Preferably, the side sections are made with a flange 93 toreceive the bolts S7 and as will be observed from the drawings, the headand nuts on bolts $7 are easily accessible for assembly purposes. Theflanges 09 and 93 are circular as are the surfaces on the centralsection with which they mate. Some slight movement circumferentially ofthe end housing sections 66 relative to the central section 65 may betolerated as it can have no eiect on the location of the valve seat 90relative to the axis of the rotor or the centerline through the valve.After bolts 37 are tightened to finish the valve assembly, no movementshould occur between the sections of the housing. While the sections 66have been described as identical, obviously only one need be equippedwith the valve seat inlay 90. Both sections are identically cast membersin all other respects.

The foregoing detailed description has been given for clearness ofunderstanding only, and no unnecessary limitations are to be understoodtherefrom for some modifications will be obvious to those skilled in theart.

I claim:

1. A rotary valve, comprising: a housing having inlet and outlet on acenter line therethrough; a rotor within the housing centered on saidcenter line, shaft and bearings in said housing supporting said rotor onsaid center line and for rotation through generally 90 about an axisnormal to and intersecting the center line; a closure member carried bythe rotor and describing a spherical surface upon movement of the rotor;a valve seat about one of said inlet and outlet and being a portion of aconical surface centered on said housing center line and tangent to saidspherical surface, said closure member carrying ya resilient ring havingan outer surface lying on said spherical surface and movable onto saidconical surface of said valve seat to close said valve.

2. A rotary valve, comprising: a housing having a center line foralignment with connecting piping and an inlet and outlet centered onsaid center line; a rotor having trunnions supporting the same in saidhousing on said center line, said trunnions having 'an axis normal toand intersecting said center line; a closure disc carried on said rotorand having a resilient ring outermost thereon; `a metallic valve seatabout one of said outlet and inlet, said seat being a portion of aconical surface centered on said center line and tangent to a spheredescribed by movement of said resilient ring, said resilient ring havingan outer surface lying on said sphere to engage said seat during openingand closing movement of said rotor and seating against said seatthroughout 360 when closed.

3. A rotary valve, comprising: a housing having spaced inlet and outletopenings on a common center line therethrough; a rotor having apipe-like section for alignment with said openings, said rotor beingmounted for about movement about an axis xed in position normal to andintersecting said center line; a closure secured on one side of saidrotor so that movement of the rotor carries the closure toward and awayfrom one of Said openings and describes a Spherical surface having itscenter coincident with the intersection of said center line and axis; ametallic valve seat about said one opening and being a portion of aconical surface centered on said center line and tangent to saidspherical surface, said rotor closure inclu-ding a ring of resilientmaterial sealed thereto with an outwardly projecting nose portion withthe outer surface thereof being on said spherical surface totangentially engage said valve seat in liquid-tight sealing engagement.

4. A rotary valve, comprising: a housing having a pair of spacedopenings respectively forming an inlet and an outlet in the housing on alongitudinal center line through the valve; a metal valve seat about oneof said openings and being a portion of a conical surface concentricwith said one opening and said center line; a rotatable rotor mounted inthe housing for rotation about a fixed axis and having a pipe-likesection for alignment with said openings `to open the valve, a closuremember on the rotor for extending across said one opening to close thevalve, said closure member including a resilient ring positioned on therotor outwardly of the fixed axis of rotor rotation to sweep its outersurface in contact tangentially with said valve seat during movement ofthe rotor, said ring being positioned on the rotor to have areas ofContact with the seat during opening and closing land being in 360sealing contact with said seat when the valve is closed.

5. A rotary valve as specified in claim 4 wherein the rotor may rotategenerally 90 and said closure member outer surface describes the surfaceof a sphere during such movement, said valve seat being generallytangent to said sphere and said resilient ring having an outer portionon the surface of said sphere to tangentially engage said seat.

6. A rotary valve, comprising: a hollow housing having spaced openingson a center line through the housing forming an inlet and an outlet; arotor in the housing mounted for about 90 of rotation about an axisfixed in position normal to and intersecting said center line, saidrotor having a pipe-like section for alignment with said openings toprovide unobstructed and unrestricted flow through the housing; aclosure mounted on said rotor for movement to a position across one ofthe openings to close the valve, Said closure including a ring ofresilient material secured in liquid-tight fashion to and in xedposition on the rotor and having an outer nose portion rounded insection; metal rings supporting said resilient ring on said rotor; avalve seat about said one opening and being a portion of a conicalsurface centered on and concentric with said valve housing center line,said rounded nose portion of said resilient ring having an outer surfacepositioned outwardly of said rotor rotation axis to sweep in sealingContact generally tangent with said valve seat through less than 360during rotary mo-tion of said rotor and to sealingly engage said seatthrough 360 with said outer surface generally tangent to said conicalseat when the rotor is brought to closed valve position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,663,538 B'acchi Dec. 22, 1953 2,809,011 Davis Oct. 8, 1957 2,945,669Gallagher July 19, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 140,041 Sweden Ian. 18, 1949261,470 Italy Nov. 28, 1928 567,554 Canada Dec. 16, 1958

1. A ROTARY VALVE, COMPRISING: A HOUSING HAVING INLET AND OUTLET ON ACENTER LINE THERETHROUGH; A ROTOR WITHIN THE HOUSING CENTERED ON SAIDCENTER LINE, SHAFT AND BEARINGS IN SAID HOUSING SUPPORTING SAID ROTOR ONSAID CENTER LINE AND FOR ROTATION THROUGH GENERALLY 90* ABOUT AN AXISNORMAL TO AND INTERSECTING THE CENTER LINE; A CLOSURE MEMBER CARRIED BYTHE ROTOR AND DESCRIBING A SPHERICAL SURFACE UPON MOVEMENT OF THE ROTOR;A VALVE SEAT ABOUT ONE OF SAID INLET AND OUTLET AND BEING A PORTION OF ACONICAL SURFACE CENTERED ON SAID HOUSING CENTER LINE AND TANGENT TO SAIDSPHERICAL SURFACE, SAID CLOSURE MEMBER CARRYING A RESILIENT RING HAVINGAN OUTER SURFACE LYING ON SAID SPHERICAL SURFACE AND MOVABLE ONTO SAIDCONICAL SURFACE OF SAID VALVE SEAT TO CLOSE SAID VALVE.